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Monday, September 19, 2005

The Renaissance

I was at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on Saturday. I returned home from the trip today and will back into the swing of things tomorrow. But I'll leave you all with a few observations.

The Renaissance Festival was really not very 'Renaissance'. The costumes, the wares and everything else... It would seem that a more appropriate name would be the 'Medieval Festival' or the 'Pirate Festival'.

The single most glaring omission was anything Christian. To put it succinctly, there may very well have been no Renaissance without the Church. However, the festival in Minnesota is completely lacking. They have people dressed up as the King and his court, the Lord Mayor and a host of other characters, but no one playing any clergy.

On the other hand, there were plenty of visitors to the festival who dressed up as wizards and witches. Apparently, the Renaissance was not so much Christian as it was pagan I guess...

This is not to say I didn't have a good time. The Minnesota Renaissance Festival's goal is not historical authenticity and I am fine with that. But the festival itself is an interesting demonstration of how popular culture views that time period.